I'm having a hard time believing that is completely real...that huge transformation. But I have no doubt that it does alleviate some of these and many other symptoms of serious illnesses, mental and physical.

meehaw:I'm having a hard time believing that is completely real...that huge transformation. But I have no doubt that it does alleviate some of these and many other symptoms of serious illnesses, mental and physical.

It's not that hard to believe. Tourette's is simply misfiring neurons in the motor control and speech centres of the brain. MJ smooths neural activity.

Tourettes sucks, i have mild tourettes which can get really freaking annoying from time to time, but i cannot imagine living with it full blown. I do agree that cannabis can definitely help as it can relax the brain. It worked for me in the past, haven't used it in years though.

I was going to say those are some big ass one person joints he is rolling but then I remembered that he is in Germany and they all mix tobacco in with weed. I remember people turning down hits off my "pure" joints. They would look at me like I was crazy. I also want to send this guy a vapor pen and some cartridges so he doesn't have to roll and light a joint whenever he needs to medicate. If you don't know what a vapor pen is and are curious, they're basically e-cigs for weed. Here is a link to the ones that I like.

Jesus Christ, :( what a horrible way to live. I cannot imagine having to do daily things and be flailing all over the place like that. Even having a cup of coffee or reading a book would be almost impossible. You would think that they could take the mary jane and make a pill that would give the same medical benefit to people like this poor man. That was just farking awful.

In the past when I've gone through periods of smoking a lot of weed, my body would build up a tolerance and I'd need more and more just to get the same effect. Would that be the case with using it to treat Tourette's?

A good friend of mine has a younger brother that has very mild tourettes that he has under control, the only thing he does is make a weird noise. The only time I have ever heard him do it was when we smoked really good weed. So it has the opposite effect on him.

Bit'O'Gristle:You would think that they could take the mary jane and make a pill that would give the same medical benefit to people like this poor man. That was just farking awful.

They do, it's called Marinol. It's one of Big Pharma's ways of keeping cannabis illegal. Whenever anyone points out that weed has medicinal uses, the first thing they point to is Marinol, saying "the pharmacy industry already has that taken care of!". See Big Pharma does not like the idea of a plant that can actually help you, because they can't regulate/control it, unlike pills.

They use a synthetic THC to create the pills. Now you may think "great!" except it doesn't really work well at all. The biggest issue is people cannot control the dosage like they can when smoking it. One pill of Marinol may be too much for some and they get that sick/nauseous feeling that it's supposed to be fixing. Plus it's expensive as hell.

Most people who are prescribed it (because they know the medicinal benefits of cannabis, but many states cannot prescribe actual cannabis) eventually switch back to the illegal, combustible version.

The mind is a fascinating, terrifying thing. I have a schizophrenic relative, and cannabis use actually exacerbates many of his symptoms. Of course, schizophrenia and Tourette's are two completely different illnesses, but it's still interesting to see how it can affect the brain.

I remember watching a documentary about a guy in the UK who had severe tourette's like this guy. I can't remember whether there was any medication he was taking or not (I don't even know if there is medication for tourette's to be honest) but I seem to remember that he didn't get much if any relief.

The documentary followed him for several months. It ended by saying that he had taken his life. It was absolutely heartbreaking to watch.

Based on my 2 minute search, it appears this hasn't been studied very much (28 patients in 2 trials). Considering the lack of side effects, though, I would have no problem prescribing this for a patient on a trial basis if I was an internist or neurologist.

Atomic Spunk:In the past when I've gone through periods of smoking a lot of weed, my body would build up a tolerance and I'd need more and more just to get the same effect. Would that be the case with using it to treat Tourette's?

It's not your body building up a tolerance. It's your brain becoming accustomed. You needed to feel "weird" to feel like it was working. The more you smoked, the more being high felt normal, the more it took to feel weird.

meehaw:I'm having a hard time believing that is completely real...that huge transformation. But I have no doubt that it does alleviate some of these and many other symptoms of serious illnesses, mental and physical.

I've never seen as extreme an impact as in the clip (I realize it took about 20 minutes in this case), but I know a few people who have used it for Tourette's Syndrome and it is very noticeable when it kicks in.